Randy Susan MeyersThe Widow of Wall Street

A novel about the seemingly blind love of a wife for her husband as he conquers Wall Street, and her extraordinary, perhaps foolish, loyalty during his precipitous fall.

Phoebe sees the fire in Jake Pierce's belly from the moment they meet as teenagers. As he creates a financial dynasty, she trusts him without hesitation - unaware his hunger for success hides a dark talent for deception.

When Phoebe learns - along with the rest of the world - that her husband's triumphs are the result of an elaborate Ponzi scheme her world unravels. Lies underpin her life and marriage. As Jake's crime is uncovered, the world obsesses about Phoebe. Did she know her gilded life was fabricated by fraud? Did she partner with her husband in hustling billions from pensioners, charities, and CEOs? Was she his accomplice in stealing from their friends and neighbors?

Debate rages as to whether love and loyalty blinded her to his crimes or if she chose to live in denial. While Jake is trapped in the web of his own deceit, Phoebe is faced with unbearable choice. Her children refuse to see her if she remains at their father's side, but abandoning Jake, a man she's known and loved since childhood, feels cruel and impossible.

From penthouse to prison, with tragic consequences rippling well beyond Wall Street, The Widow of Wall Street exposes a woman struggling to redefine her life and marriage as everything she thought she knew crumbles around her.

Presented with Congregation Anshai Torah

Patricia BernsteinTen Dollars to Hate

Thursday, February 1, 2018 | 7 pmAaron Family JCC$10 in advance | $15 at the door

Ten Dollars to Hate tells the story of the massive Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s - by far the most "successful" incarnation since its inception in the ashes of the Civil War - and the first prosecutor in the nation to successfully convict and jail Klan members. Dan Moody, a twenty-nine-year-old Texas district attorney, demonstrated that Klansmen could be punished for taking the law into their own hands - in this case, for the vicious flogging of a young World War I veteran.

The 1920s Klan numbered in the millions and infiltrated politics and law enforcement across the United States, not just in the Deep South. Several states elected Klan-sponsored governors and US senators. Klansmen engaged in extreme violence against whites as well as blacks, promoted outrageous bigotry against various ethnic groups, and boycotted non-Klan businesses.

A few courageous public officials tried to make Klansmen pay for their crimes, notably after Klan assaults in California and Texas and two torture-murders in Louisiana. All failed until September 1923 when Dan Moody convicted and won significant prison time for five Klansmen in a tense courtroom in Georgetown, Texas. Moody became a national sensation overnight and went on to become the youngest governor of Texas at the age of 33.

The Georgetown cases were the beginning of the end for this iteration of the Klan. Two years later, the head of the Klan in Indiana was convicted of murdering a young woman. Membership dwindled almost as quickly as it had grown, but the Klan's poisonous influence lingered through the decades that followed. Ten Dollars to Hate explores this pivotal - and brutal - chapter in the history of America.

Presented with Dallas Jewish Historical Society

Paula ShoyerThe Healthy Jewish Kitchen

Monday, February 26, 2018 | 7 pmAaron Family JCC$10 in advance | $15 at the door

Too often, Jewish cookbooks still feature many recipes that lack whole grains and include too much salt, fat, sugar, and processed foods. But Paula Shoyer's delicious take on Jewish cooking is different: she uses only natural ingredients and offers a fresh, nutrient-dense spin on every dish. Here you'll find very little frying, and no margarine, frozen puff pastry, soup stocks and powders, and most jarred sauces. More than 60 recipes include both Sephardic and Ashkenazy Jewish classics (Israeli Herb and Almond Salad, Sourdough Challah, Tzimmes Puree, Potato and Scallion Latkes, Schnitzel with Nut Crust) as well as American and international dishes that extend beyond the Jewish culinary world. In Shoyer's words: "This book has food you'll recognize, because you still want to feel connected to your ancestors' kitchens, but I’ve made it more nutritious and often easier to make." This event will include a demonstration with Paula Shoyer and the opportunity to taste some of these great recipes!

Robert GandtAngels in the Sky

The gripping story of how an all-volunteer air force helped defeat five Arab nations and protect the fledgling Jewish state.

In 1948, only three years after the Holocaust, the newly founded nation of Israel came under siege from a coalition of Arab states. The invaders vowed to annihilate the tiny country and its 600,000 settlers. A second Holocaust was in the making.

Outnumbered sixty to one, the Israelis had no allies, no regular army, no air force, no superpower to intercede on their behalf. The United States, Great Britain, and most of Europe enforced a strict embargo on the shipment of arms to the embattled country. In the first few days, the Arab armies overran Israel. The Egyptian air force owned the sky, making continuous air attacks on Israeli cities and army positions. Israel's extinction seemed certain.

And then came help. From the United States, Canada, Britain, France, South Africa arrived a band of volunteer airmen. Most were World War II veterans - young, idealistic, swaggering, noble, eccentric, courageous beyond measure. Many were Jews, a third were not. Most of them knowingly violated their nations' embargoes on the shipment of arms and aircraft to Israel. They smuggled in Messerschmitt fighters from Czechoslovakia, painting over swastikas with Israeli stars. Defying their own countries' strict laws, the airmen risked everything - their lives, careers, citizenship - to fight for Israel.

They were a small group, fewer than 150. In the crucible of war they became brothers in a righteous cause. They flew, fought, died, and, against all odds, helped save a new nation. The saga of the volunteer airmen in Israel's war of independence stands as one of the most stirring - and untold - war stories of the past century.

Presented with Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas

Alexandra ZapruderTwenty-Six Seconds: A Personal History of the Zapruder Film

Thursday, April 12, 2018 | 7 pmAaron Family JCC$10 in advance | $15 at the door

Abraham Zapruder didn't know when he ran home to grab his video camera on November 22, 1963 that this single spontaneous decision would change his family's life for generations to come. Originally intended as a home movie of President Kennedy's motorcade, Zapruder's film of the JFK assassination is now shown in every American history class, included in Jeopardy and Trivial Pursuit questions, and referenced in novels and films. It is the most famous example of citizen journalism, a precursor to the iconic images of our time, such as the Challenger explosion, the Rodney King beating, and the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. But few know the complicated legacy of the film itself.

Now Abraham's granddaughter, Alexandra Zapruder, is ready to tell the complete story for the first time. With the help of the Zapruder family's exclusive records, memories, and documents, Zapruder tracks the film's torturous journey through history, all while American society undergoes its own transformation, and a new media-driven consumer culture challenges traditional ideas of privacy, ownership, journalism, and knowledge.

Part biography, part family history, and part historical narrative, Zapruder demonstrates how one man's unwitting moment in the spotlight shifted the way politics, culture, and media intersect, bringing about the larger social questions that define our age.